Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive
officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said he isn’t a socialist,
though he believes economic growth hasn’t resulted in a fair
enough distribution of wealth.

Two goals of the economic system should be to expand and
spread global wealth, Blankfein, who turns 58 tomorrow, said in
a discussion today with Royal Bank of Canada CEO Gordon Nixon at
an event hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto.

“Over the long term, if the system works well, it should
accomplish both goals,” Blankfein said. “It hasn’t
accomplished enough of the second goal in the right way, and
that’s what the distress is over.”

Occupy Wall Street, the global movement against inequality
that ignited in Manhattan last year, marked its first
anniversary with demonstrations on Sept. 17. Protests against
income disparity, bankers’ greed and corporate abuse sprouted
from San Francisco to Hong Kong after demonstrators established
an encampment in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park a year ago.

“In the United States over the last generation or two
we’ve been much better at generating wealth and much less good
at distributing it,” Blankfein said.

Still, he said he doesn’t believe in wealth redistribution.

“No one’s going to accuse me of being a socialist, and I’m
not,” Blankfein told the audience of about 860 business people.

‘Disproportionate’ Attention

Attention the financial industry and firms including
Goldman Sachs have faced for their role behind the financial
crisis has been “disproportionate” though not necessarily
unfair, Blankfein said.

“For me, it’s distracting to say the least, but I don’t
want to suggest that we’re repelling the notion of it because
it’s unfair, it’s just disproportionate,” said Blankfein, whose
firm awarded him $12.4 million in compensation for 2011.

Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall
Street history before converting to a bank in 2008, announced a
new round of cost-cutting in July after reporting the lowest
first-half revenue in seven years.